If We Hold On Together
by Skye Pirate
Summary: Alright , I suck at summaries ... my first non-humoristic SK fic ! One day , at school , 5 years old Yoh meets a boy he's not about to forget ...


If We Hold On Together  
  
By : Bounty Hunter  
  
Disclaimer : Okay , let's make this as monosyllabic as possible : I do not own Shaman King . There , that should do it . . .  
  
Me : Alright people , this time I'm gonna try to write something dramatic . . .  
  
Lance : Why ?  
  
Me : Because . . . I want to !Anyway . . . I just wanted to say . . . English is my second language so be nice and . . . well , that's it ! enjoy my fic !  
  
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" When we're out there in the dark , we'll dream about the sun . In the dark , we'll feel the light , warm our hearts , everyone . . . If we hold on together , I know our dreams we'll die , dreams see us through to forever . . . . As high as souls can fly , the clouds roll by . For you and I . . . "  
  
- If we hold on together ( The land before time theme) , by Diana Ross .  
  
Rain had fallen pretty hard this morning and the ground was still wet when the school's bell rang to announce the beginning of the recess . An instant later , the playground was already invaded by several small kindergartners , carelessly running under the morose afternoon sky . Laughter echoed everywhere near the school , warming any passerby's heart with the nostalgia of a long lost childhood . . .  
  
Five years old Asakura Yoh was slowly walking along the wooden fence , his hands hid in the pockets of his orange rain coat , trying to be as discrete as he could , he didn't want to be noticed by anyone else , he only wanted to be alone with his thoughts . . . At least , that's what he wanted the other kids to think . . . He wanted a friend more than anything else in the world but nobody seemed to accept him the way he was . At the beginning of the year , he remembered bragging about his shaman legacy , he thought that way , people would find him cool and he would have lots of friends but instead of fame and glory , he got severe beating and antipathy . . .  
  
He sighed and energetically kicked a small rock with his plastic boots , three or four meters away from him , some boys of his age were playing tag , making as much noise as possible to annoy the girls who were playing with their dolls near them . When they noticed Yoh's sorry silhouette , the boys stopped their playing and exchange an amused glance . The leader of the gang , a tall six years old with straight brown hair and a square shaped face named Hikaru , smirked and began to walk toward the young Shaman while his friends silently watched him go . When Yoh noticed him , he tried to run away but too late , his bully had already grabbed his shoulder and violently pulled him back .  
  
" Hello Asakura !" merely said Hikaru , smirking yet again , the gray sky , reflecting in his eyes made him look even more imposing to the young boy .  
  
Yoh sighed and turned his head away . Irritated , Hikaru , who was waiting for a bigger reaction from him , angrily pulled his prey's hair . Yoh moaned and begged himself not to cry , not in front of him . . . he couldn't !  
  
" So . . . " continued Hikaru " Did you talked with your little ghost friends this morning ?"  
  
Yoh heard Hikaru's friends laughed behind him , tears began to grow in his eyes but he forced himself to stay calm . He closed his eyes and bit his lips :  
  
" What do you want ?" he asked with a small , strangled voice .  
  
Hikaru clenched Yoh's coat and lift him a centimeter or two away from the ground : " I just want to play with you . . . why are you acting in such a mean way ?"  
  
"I'm not mean with you ! You are ! you're always calling me names and hurting me ! I never did anything to you ! can't you just leave alone , dammit !"  
  
On those words , silence came over the small group of boys , each starring at Yoh with big , round surprised eyes . The bully himself seemed surprised :  
  
" Wow !" Hikaru exclaimed on a fake impressed voice " Hey , guys ! the ghost-boy can talk !"  
  
The brown-haired boy crudely laughed and pushed Yoh in the mud and turned over to his friends :  
  
" C'mon ! let's go play football !"  
  
Then , Hikaru and his friends ran away to get a ball , leaving Yoh alone in the mud .  
  
The boy stayed there for a minute or two , hiding his face in the mud so he could cry as much as he wanted without getting any unwanted attention . Rain began to fall again , he heard some kid scream and other laugh , the splashing sound that boots makes when they hit the water , the song of a far away bird , the voice of teachers talking to each other . . . for him , everything seemed to be part of an other world right now . . . Everything except the weird song of a far away child , who , he guessed , was about his age .  
  
Intrigued , he lifted his head to see who , in this playground was lonely enough to sing alone and crazy enough to do it without being scared of what would the others think of him . . . He finally spotted him , it was a small black-haired boy sitting in a wheeled chair . Yoh immediately recognized him , it was Akira , the new students from miss Kishimoto's class . To anyone else , the sight of a child in a wheeled chair , signing a weird song in the rain may have been strange , but for Yoh , the sight was dazzling , he was looking at someone who could understand him . . . someone who was suffering from his differences too . . . Suddenly , he felt happiness flowing back into his heart , he had to go talk to this boy . . . he just HAD to .  
  
The young Shaman stood up and ran toward the boy , when he arrived a few meters away from him , he slowed down and cautiously approached while he took time to observed the black-haired kid : He was very small , he had thick glasses on his nose , his skin was almost translucent and his hair were cut in an old-fashioned way , he wasn't really of the "cute kid" type . . . but what really caught Yoh's attention was the reason why he was in a wheeled chair : in fact , Akira had no legs at all . Now a little less confident , Yoh hesitated a second . The boy hadn't noticed his presence yet , he was still signing , violently moving his head up and down after each word . . .  
  
"Huh . . . Hello . . . that's a . . . nice song you're singing . . . "  
  
When he heard Yoh's voice , Akira immediately stopped his singing as if someone had pulled his voice out of his mouth . Just when the young shaman was sure that the leg-less one would start to scream in terror because someone had interrupted him , Akira turned his head over and smiled . He was ugly , but his smile had something special . . . Yoh smiled back at him and stepped a little closer toward him :  
  
" Hi ! I'm Yoh !"  
  
" I like your coat . . it's orange . . . orange is Sakura's favorite color !" answered Akira .  
  
" Who's Sakura ?" asked Yoh , while he forced himself not to look at Akira's stump which he had as only leg .  
  
The boy bent toward Yoh and smiled a second time :  
  
" Can you keep a secret ?" he asked , in a whisper .  
  
The young shaman blinked and shook his head as a "yes" .  
  
"Sakura is a ghost . . . and she's my friend !"  
  
On those words , the boy gasped : Akira was a shaman ! just like him ! for the first of his life he had the chance to play with another shaman of his age :  
  
" I have a lot of ghost friends too !" the boy joyfully announced , jumping on his feet with excitation . " You wanna be friend with me , Akira ?"  
  
The handicapped boy readjusted his glasses on his nose and looked onto Yoh's eyes :  
  
" You want to be friend with me ? Then yeah ! I want to be your friend " Akira hushed for a few second and put one of his hand in his right pocket to take out two strawberry candies wrapped in a pink plastic wrapping : " You want a candy ?" His new friend asked as he handed him one .  
  
Yoh smiled and grabbed the gift his new friend was offering him :  
  
"Yeah of course !"  
  
The two boys put the candy in their mouth and began to suck them in silence for a moment . After a few minute , Yoh turned his head over :  
  
" So . . . do you wanna play something ?"  
  
Then , they began to play several games , the recess only lasted forty minutes but Yoh felt like a new boy when the bell rang . He waved goodbye to Akira and walked toward his own classroom . During the rest of day , everybody noticed Yoh's new attitude . The boy was suddenly more confident and less shy , he didn't care about his old bully and was , for the first time of his life , participating in class . His teacher , Mr. Azuka , wondered why the boy suddenly talked as if it had always been that way but then , the students started to talk back to him and Mr. Azuka could only feel happy for the little boy . . .  
  
Inside of him , Yoh felt inner peace . He never had been so happy in all his life and on top of that , Akira had promise him to introduce Sakura to him tomorrow . Now he was going to have another new friend ! what else could he wish for ? For the first time of his short life he felt like he was actually living . . .  
  
The next day , it was raining as well , but the sun was shinning in Yoh's heart , he couldn't wait to meet Sakura . Akira had told him how nice and pretty she was . She was a four years who died in a car accident near his house a year ago since then , she and Akira were the best of friends . Yoh already had lots of ghost companions but never had a "real" ghost friend like Akira and he wondered if Sakura would like to be his friend too . . .  
  
When he arrived at school , he started to look for Akira . The playground was fulfilled with children but none of them was the wheeled-chaired one . . . Yoh felt like his heart was going to stop : Where was Akira ? Confusion took on his mind . What if he was sick . . . what if didn't want to be his friend anymore ? for once in his life Yoh had made a friend he couldn't afford to lose Akira now ! He started to run everywhere in the playground , calling his friend's name :  
  
''Akiraaaaaaaaaaaaa ?''  
  
But no one answered him . . .  
  
Just when he wanted to go look for him in the bathrooms , the voice of three adults , including miss Kishimoto's , caught his attention when he noticed they were actually talking about Akira . He turned over and slowly walked toward them .  
  
Akira's parents were still talking to miss Kishimoto , when they noticed a small kid with long hair , wearing an orange coat approach them . The father was the first to react , he bend toward him and smiled :  
  
" What do you want , my boy ?"  
  
"Where's Akira ?" asked the child , fear was glimmering in his eyes .  
  
The man stood up and glanced at his wife , embarrassed .  
  
"Where's Akira ?" asked the child a second time .  
  
Miss Kishimoto looked at Yoh with sorry eyes , but didn't answered .  
  
"Where's Akira ?" he asked again , this time , his voice was trembling and tears began to grow in his eyes .  
  
" Akira . . ." finally answered the mother after a long silence " Akira . . . went to a new school . . . one that could take care of his problems . . ."  
  
On those words , Yoh froze and stared at woman with his eyes full of tears .  
  
"Are you Yoh ? Akira told us about you . . . he said you were really nice . . ."  
  
The boy felt tears rolling down his cheeks , why ? for once in his life he met a shaman of age and now . . . now his only friend left him . . . He couldn't stand it anymore . He began to scream to a wild animal and immediately ran toward the bathrooms , trying to hide his tears :  
  
" It can't be ! Akira was my friend ! he can't go away !"  
  
An hour later , Yoh was still crying in the bathroom when he heard someone knock on the door :  
  
"Yoh ? Yoh , are you in there ?"  
  
The boy recognized the soft voice of his mother , he lifted his head and whipped a tear :  
  
" Mommy ?" he called  
  
"That's me honey . . . miss Kishimoto called me and . . . she told me about your friend Akira . . ."  
  
" Mommy !" Yoh ran toward his mother and jumped into her arms . The women smiled and tenderly rocked her child for a few minutes . Yoh was still crying as hard as he could and she didn't know just what to say . . .  
  
"There , there , sweetie . . . I know you loved this boy but now , he had to go somewhere else , somewhere people could take care of him . . ."  
  
Yoh softly hit his mother's breast : " But it's not fair mommy ! Akira was a shaman like me ! . . . today he was supposed to introduce me to Sakura ! his ghost friend , she died in a car accident near Akira's house a year ago . . . that's where he met him , you know . . ." his words were interrupted by a flow of tears .  
  
"Oh . . ." simply answered his mother "So that's what's you thought , heh ?"  
  
Yoh glanced at his mother : " What do you mean ?"  
  
"Yoh . . . Akira wasn't a shaman . . . he had a severe handicapped but he was mentally disturbed too , since that car accident he had . . . a year ago (she gently caressed her son's hair) . . . his parents sent him to a mental institution . . . he suffered of . . . schizophrenia . . ."  
  
The boy sobbed and gritted his teeth : " What does it means ?"  
  
"It means he was seeing and hearing things which weren't real Yoh . . . "  
  
The child began to cry harder , his mother shook her head and hugged him as hard as she could .  
  
Rain was falling hard that day , seven years old Yoh was sitting near the fence , watching the other kids play in the water . The rain was cold and the coat he was wearing was way to small for him , in fact he had lost his other coat yesterday and had been obliged to wear his orange one he had back in kindergarten . His hand were starting to get red because of the cold water , he put them in his pocket to warm them . When his right hand reached the end of the pocket , he felt something cold and sticky between his finger , he took the object out and realize it was the pink wrapping of a strawberry candy . . .  
  
He bent his head in sadness , and tried to prevent himself from crying :  
  
"Impostor . . . damn impostor . . ."  
  
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Me : There , the end . . . hope you enjoyed it !  
  
Lance : Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand . . .  
  
Me : REVIEW ! * big sad puppy eyes* Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssseeeee !? I want your comments good or bad , okay ? 


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